University News Last updated 14 March 2017
Birmingham City University is one of seven universities to join forces with Education charity Teach First to deliver its enhanced Leadership Development Programme (LDP).
The Leadership Development Programme is a two-year salaried route into teaching which places participants in schools facing the greatest challenges. The LDP focuses on building participants’ leadership skills and developing them as research informed teachers so they can tackle educational inequality in low income schools and across society.
From July 2017, those starting the LDP will complete a significantly revised programme. Participants will study towards a Post Graduate Diploma in Education, which for the first time fully integrates teacher training with leadership development.
The PGDE will be worth twice the Masters’ credit of the Post Graduate Certificate of Education offered by the previous LDP, reflecting the value of university accreditation and the role of higher education providers in delivering training.
This will be the first PGDE in the UK to run over two years, with university involvement across both years. This rigour will help participants develop as research informed professionals. Teach First will continue to place participants in schools in every region of England.
Professor Kevin Mattinson, Associate Dean and Head of the School of Education and Social Work at Birmingham City University said:
“In addition, for the very first time we will be able to offer those who complete the Teach First programme a progression route to a full Masters degree.”.
“The award of these contracts is a clear reflection of the high quality of work carried out by the Teach First team at Birmingham City University, led by Davinder Dosanjh; the strength of our partnership with the West Midlands region, led by Anita Wheeler; and the continued work with, and commitment of, our partner schools.”
Reuben Moore, Director of Leadership for Teach First, said:
“I’m delighted to confirm our partnerships with some of the country’s top and most innovative universities for developing teachers. We have been closely working with them to jointly develop a cutting edge Leadership Development Programme focused on supporting schools serving low income communities. Without the expertise of all the universities we have worked with over the years, we simply would not be able to deliver our vision of ending educational inequality.
“Last year Ofsted rated our existing training as ‘outstanding’, which in large part was down to the hard work of our partner universities. The new programme builds on that, taking in evidence from the best education systems around the world – as well as feedback from participants and schools - to deliver increased support, training and expertise.
“Together with our university partners, we believe teaching should have the same expert status as other top professions, and this new model will help encourage that.”
The new LDP will also enhance and simplify the vital support provided to participants in schools. Each participant will now receive support from an in-school mentor, a university tutor and a Teach First Participant Development Lead for the full two years, meaning participants can draw on their expertise and better support their pupils’ progress.
The other university partners are Bath Spa University, Canterbury Christ Church University, Northumbria University, Sheffield Hallam University, UCL Institute of Education and University of Manchester.